Chechen deputy held over theatre outrage

By Michael Wines in MoscowOctober 31 2002

Danish police said yesterday they had arrested a senior Chechen official in Copenhagen after a request from Russian authorities who said he was suspected of helping to organise the Moscow theatre hostage crisis last week.

Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist administration ousted by Russia's military offensive launched in 1999, attended the World Chechen Congress in Copenhagen this week.

The congress caused a diplomatic row between Russia and Denmark, which holds the presidency of the European Union.

Police said they had received information from the Russian authorities on Tuesday that showed Mr Zakayev was suspected of helping organise last week's siege and participating in terrorist acts from 1996-99.

Police said they expected an extradition request from Russia. ");document.write("

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While Moscow also launched raids against those allegedly linked to the theatre siege, two more hostages died from the effects of a gas used by troops to incapacitate the Chechen rebels.

The United States ambassador to Russia said secrecy about the use of a powerful anaesthetic gas may have caused the death toll to rise. It stands at 120.

Alexander Eversible suggested officials had been mistaken not to tell doctors about the gas and an effective antidote until minutes before the theatre was stormed.

"We regret that the lack of information contributed to the confusion after the immediate operation to free the hostages was over," he said.

"It's clear that with perhaps a little more information, at least a few more of the hostages may have survived."

Mr Eversions remarks, the first muted criticism of the hostage operation by a US official, came as grieving Russians buried the first of the gas victims, and a handful of liberal Russian MPs called for a broad inquiry into the hostage crisis.

The British Government was expected to lodge a formal request this week for information about the identity of the gas.

But the Germans think they already know.

"It is probably an anaesthetic called halothane," the Munich coroner, Ludwig von Meyer, told a media conference. "This material was detected in one of the two German hostages. It is possible a second unidentified material was also deployed."

Suspicion was growing on Tuesday that the Kremlin is concealing the true death figure in the raid in an attempt to stifle criticism of its tactics.

The fate of more than 70 hostages is still unknown, while estimates of the number missing vary. Between 70 and 100 names have not appeared on official death lists or at hospitals.

Most Russians appear to be taking President Vladimir Putin's side in the controversy surrounding the storming of the theatre. On Tuesday, in a poll conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Centre, 85 per cent of respondents backed his conduct of the crisis. Only 10 per cent of them were critical.

In Chechnya, separatist guerillas shot down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter on Tuesday near Moscow's main military base just outside the capital, Grozny, killing four servicemen, officials said. General Stanislav Kavun, deputy commander of Interior Ministry troops, said the helicopter was brought down as it prepared to land.